Services Developer in Chester House, Epsom Ave, Handforth, Cheadle, Greater Manchester, SK9 3DF

This is a fantastic opportunity to come and work for a company voted 5th in the Great Place to Work (Best Large Workplaces) awards 2018, and Number 15 in Europe in 2017! Pets at Home Group Plc is the UK’s leading pet care business; our commitment is to make sure pets and their owners get the very best advice, products and care. We have over 450 stores, over 310 Groom Rooms and 440 First Opinion Vet Practices. Our business is fast-paced, innovative and fun and it's our people that make the difference.

We are recruiting for a Services Developer. We welcome applications from those looking to work remotely but please note that our Support Offices are located in Handforth (Cheshire) and you may be required to travel to the office on a regular basis.

The Services Developer will work within the Integration and Services development team to deliver Service implementations within the Pets at Homes services layer;

• Service Design and Development – Design and develop Service solutions.
• Documentation – Helps to maintain an appropriate level of documentation
• Test Creation and Execution – Defines and develops automated unit tests to help maintain software quality
• Product Development and Stakeholder interaction – plays a role in interacting with stakeholders and product management to define and enhance the products under development
• Software Development Lifecycle – plays a role in the agile software development lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities;

• Designs and develops services and API solutions to business problems
• Where appropriate produces re-usable components and services which can be used to develop further applications more efficiently
• Produces and maintains appropriate levels of documentation for the software being built
• Develops and maintains appropriate unit and integration testing suites using techniques such as TDD during the development lifecyle
• Works with product ownership team to help define and prioritise features for the product backlog.
• Interacts with 3rd party development teams to help deliver software components where appropriate
• Interacts with Pets at Home and 3rd party stakeholders to ensure efficient delivery of software components.
• Actively participates in all aspects of the agile software development lifecycle including:
• Agile Backlog Refinement and estimation (e.g. Planning Poker, Three Amigos)
• Sprint Planning
• Software Development and Daily Standups
• Sprint Showcases / Demos
• Retrospectives

Skills Required;

• Experience of developing using DotNet and DotNetCore
• Experience of TDD, CI and CD.
• Experience of service bus implementations, such as Biztalk and IIB
• A good understanding of Service oriented design and software Development and the ecosystem and technologies in use
• Knowledge of Software / Process / Project lifecycles with an understanding of Agile working practices
• Some knowledge of frameworks, patterns and practices used to develop software and experience of using Golang as a development language of choice.
• Customer-oriented approach and outcome focused
• Experience of engaging with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Good communication skills with an ability to articulate technical designs and issues with other members of development.
• Results driven with an ability to plan and organise self in order to achieve objectives and targets
• Forward thinking with a flexible approach to change and able to work effectively in a variety of situations, constantly seeking improvements

The Benefits;

• Competitive salary of up to £45,000 per annum
• Annual bonus scheme
• 36 days paid annual leave (including bank holidays), rising to 38 days after 2 years service.
• Birthday leave – 1 day extra leave to celebrate your Birthday!
• Pensions - You’ll have the opportunity to join the Pets Pension from day 1 of joining us and the company will contribute to your pension plan so long as you meet the auto-enrolment criteria.
• Colleague Discount- 20% discount for you (plus one family member).
• “Treats” benefits- an online range of offers and discounts which are available exclusively to Pets at Home Colleagues
• Life assurance
• Charity Leave- You are entitled to have one paid day’s leave each year to work for your favourite animal related charity.
• Celebrating Special Celebrations? You’ll get 1 extra week off and a gift to celebrate your wedding or civil partnership, and a gift from us if you are expecting or adopting a baby!
• Free Car Parking

Please note that we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the application deadline/closing date once a sufficient number of applications have been received.

*If you haven't heard back from us within 2 weeks, please assume that unfortunately on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful*